Erdoğan hails Italy for banning coalition governments

ANKARA

AA Photo

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has hailed Italy’s decision to ban the formation of coalition governments in the name of providing stability, amid predictions that Turkey’s upcoming parliamentary elections might force a coalition government, ending more than a decade of single-party rule by the Justice and Development Party (AKP). 

“Italy recently passed a law banning coalitions. While the entire world is seeking ways to boost stability, they [opposition parties] are promising a coalition government. The entire world is adopting the presidential system for stability, while they are still talking about the parliamentary system,” Erdoğan said in his May 7 address during an inauguration ceremony for projects carried out by the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) in Ankara. 

A recently adopted law in Italy stipulates forming a single-party government through a two-round parliamentary election, so that the winner will have a parliamentary majority, thereby eliminating the complicated coalition governments that have left the country’s politics deeply unstable for decades. 

Turkey’s pro-government media and columnists covered Italy’s new law, while Erdoğan became the first high-level official speaking on the subject amid growing arguments the upcoming polls would result in a coalition government, which would mean the end of the AKP’s 13-year self-rule in government. Erdoğan had earlier described coalition governments as “evil” and the “start of the country’s collapse.”

President slams CHP over Syrian refugees     

The president also continued his strongly worded criticism of Turkey’s opposition parties ahead of the June 7 general election, particularly singling out the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). 

Slamming CHP head Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu for pledging to send Syrian refugees back to Syria, Erdoğan said turning away the needy and the poor was “not part of Turkish tradition and culture.” 

“Those who have no such values in their world may think about doing such a thing. But we should do what best suits us,” he said. 

Kılıçdaroğlu recently lashed out at the government over its foreign policy choices, which have led to many Turkish ambassadors having to return to Ankara over tension. 

Erdoğan referred to four embassies where Turkey has no ambassador: Israel, Syria, Egypt and Libya. He did not mention Austria, the Vatican or Yemen, which could also be added to the list. 

He said Turkey has no ambassador in Israel “because of its aggression towards the Palestinians,” no ambassador in Syria “because its leadership is killing its own people,” and no ambassador in Egypt because “coup-plotters toppled the democratically elected leader.” He accused the CHP of siding with the Bashar al-Assad regime and the current Israeli and Egyptian administrations.

“Could there be a point of view so unserious, so remote from its own geography and history,” Erdoğan said. 

“He [Kılıçdaroğlu] thinks about siding with Israel instead of Palestine, siding with al-Assad, and dignifying coup plotters in Egypt, instead of following democracy as a foreign policy. The Egyptian people are our brothers, not this government. We have no problem with the Egyptian people, but we won’t respect to those who do not respect the will of the Egyptian people,” he added. 

‘CHP, HDP and parallel state in alliance’ 

Again disregarding the president’s constitutional neutrality, Erdoğan alleged that the CHP, the HDP, and the “parallel state” of followers of the Fethullah Gülen movement, were in an “alliance and trying to resurrect the old Turkey coalition.” 

“The main opposition party and the party under the separatist terror organization are hand in hand for provoking ideological, ethnic and religious sensitivities to get a [better] result in the polls,” he said.